Is Symbian really that bad?

Vonhelmet

Vonhelmet

Vonhelmet

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Every review I read for a phone that uses Symbian always has some big caveat about how the phone is great but Symbian crashes and locks up all the time.

Is it really that bad?
 
As far as I'm aware its just getting old, I always found it to be a bit slow and clunky, done the job all right on my N95 I have to say, but yeah, it did tend to lock up pretty regularly.

There's some sort of big release coming for it though IIRC.
 
I did have to take care when typing to avoid that! Am eyeing the 5800 or x6 so at least it'd be a pretty up to date release of the os.
 
Fine on my 5800 tbh, had it 6 months or so and can't recall a time it's crashed, the occasional slowdown but that's normally with Nokia Messaging in the background, music playing and web browsing at the same time.

With the up-to-date firmware and a couple decent apps it's a pretty handy phone for the money :)

The 'must-have' apps I mainly use are:

SMS Preview (previews text message on homescreen when it arrives)
Nokia Messaging (push e-mail)
Nimbuzz (Chat application, MSN etc)
Google Maps (Prefer it to native maps application)
Mobbler (last.fm app)
Tube Map
Fonefood (cool app for finding restaurants)
 
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i honestly dont have a problem with it on my satio since the last update. runs all the apps designed for 5800/n97 etc and never had any problems. not as nice android but i much prefer it over my old WM6.5 satio
 
The 5800 is still the best bang for buck phone on the market as far as I'm concerned.

Operating system is fine. OK its looks dated but its damn functional and as another carrot there's now free voice guided Sat Nav from Nokia as standard with it.
 
I think part of that reputation comes from handsets being released with immature firmware - notably the Nokia N97, Samsung i8910 and Sony Ericsson Satio in the past twelve months. S60 generally runs very well after a few firmware updates - I think the fault lies with the manufacturers as many handsets are completely stable.

5800 running v40 firmware should be pretty solid. Reviewers have found a few bugs in the X6 (admittedly on pre-release firmware).
 
Symbian is pretty decent. The problem is the UI; S60. It's great on non-touchscreen phones but the UI is ugly and dreadful waste of space on touchscreen phones.

Having said that, I had a play with the X6 recently and I was surprised with how good it was. It was very responsive.
 
I just got an E72 running Symbian and it's great. It's fast, simple, does what it says on the tin. Previous phone used Windows Mobile 6.1, I regard Symbian as better.
 
Symbian is very functional, but not particularly pretty. That doesn't bother me, but I think it might get an unfair rep because of that. It's not any more unstable than any other phone OS I've used, which is almost all (bar android).
 
Hi

I've had my trusted N95 three years now. Ok its not a "smart" phone but it never crashes, battery life is still good and does more than enough for me. I've never updated the software so its probably running a very old version as well.

Having said the above, I am about to jump to a N900 running Maemo because the N95 screen backlight is dead. If it wasn't for that I would have kept it.

If you like a handset that gives you what you want, I wouldn't be put off by symbian.

Cheers
 
Nothing really wrong with Symbian...its an ok mobile OS but very outdated though. Saying that id rather have symbian than a Winmo phone...thats a no brainer. For what it is the Symbian OS is pretty functional and does what its meant to do...reminds me of the BB OS which is functional but getting a bit tired looking although OS5 is much better i have to say
 
Symbian is good at being a phone but not much else any more, unfortunately it hasnt been developed much since (or not noticeable) S60 hit the shelves.
I was blown away by the Nokia 6600, then again by the Sony p910i. By the time i got the m600 and N95 it had become lack lustre and looked very dated, more so when you compared the n95 to the Ipod.
 
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